From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A production of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome back to the show. My name is nol Our compatriot Matt is on adventures and will return. They called me Ben. We are joined as always with our superproducer Alexis code named Doc Holiday Jackson. Most importantly, you are you, You are here, and that makes this stuff they don't want you to know. It's the top of the week, so we are exploring strange news and we've got some We've got some strange stuff going on here. We've got UH. We had a lot of response to our earlier reports about cargo, cults and Prince Philip. So our adventures today involve UH Royalty, they involve UFOs, they involve democracy for the lack thereof, We're We're going in many directions with today's show, nol If people do Matt proud. But my first question for you is, UH, I saw a headline we're researching ahead of this UH that that you hit the team to about Prince Philip. And this is something I did not know about the late UK royal Yeah. In addition to you know, dabbling and casual racism, it turns out that he's super into UFOs. Who knew. Yeah. He also looks like that character from that one Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode that everyone likes where nobody can talk, and they're these like creepy like sinister dudes and suits that say, you know, sure whatever I think that was. That's called hush actually, Um, but yeah, creepy looking guy, very very problematic guy. Um. I also found that the name of his biography is the like driest name in the history of biographies. It's called Prince Philip The Turbulent Early Life of the Man who married Queen Elizabeth the Second. Oh yeah that this is like a real page turner. Um. But uh. The gentleman Philip d who wrote this biography or worked on this biography with Prince Philip UM apparently found the conversations going in somewhat unusual directions. Um he Uh. It came after he had um worked previously on a book about some prominent UFO experts or ufologists if you will. Um. And this was actually after World War Two, So this is like super old school, you know, UFO talk and Prince Philip, it turns out, has a massive collection of book on UFOs subscribes to a British quarterly magazine called Flying Saucer Review that seems so antiquated. The idea of Flying Saucer Review, it seems in the name itself would make you know, people don't take it super seriously saucers anymore. Adding review to things makes them feel like academic. That's a good point. Then that author, by the way that we're talking, there are two Philips in this story. I think there's Prince Philip and then the author Philip D Right. And yeah, and in the process of researching, you know, this book, he found out all this stuff. Um. And obviously, as we know, by the way this is, there's a great article that runs down a lot of this there's a few actually, um. It seems like it just came out after uh, the the Duke of Edinburgh's passing. Um. But yeah, the Vice has as an article that kind of goes through a lot of this stuff. Um, that I definitely used as a primary research source for this this conversation. Um. But it's super interesting, man, because like, especially considering the way he behaved towards those whole cargo cult situations, you know, like kind of leaning into it a little bit, and you know, posing for selfies and all of that. Right then, Yeah, so we Uh, I want to thank everybody who wrote in about that earlier story. Not everybody had the same perspective, but I think we can all agree, regardless of your opinions about Prince Philip or the monarchy in general. Uh, the people who are part of the royal family lead very different and oftentimes, as odd as it may sound, very demanding lives. Like they're not in coal mines, you know, they're not stealing stripping copper from abandoned warehouses, but they are held to some rigid social standards. They're required to, uh do all sorts of diplomatic functions and so on. With a story like this, what I think is really interesting is that it's not one of those things. It's something that the guy was clearly personally into, and I get the feeling checking out this Vice article and a couple of other things, I get the feeling that he was the kind of person who if you were at one of those diplomatic functions, or if you just saw him around the house and you wanted to strike up a conversation. I bet the best icebreaker was, uh, you know, what do you think about UFOs? Dude? You couldn't call him dude because he's the Duke of Edinburgh, but sire, my lord, my liege, what do you call a guy like that? Your your duke ship totally yeah, that would be yeah, the very least. I think he would appreciate the goal, the audacity of it, the outright audacity. Um, and you you're right then, like these you know, we we've talked about the royal family and people have opinions. It's obviously a great source of like kind of reality show ask entertainment for many people, and they get a lot of flak because there's sort of these figureheads that don't you know, have a lot of direct uh influence over policy, but they certainly have indirect influence over policy, as is evidenced by the story that apparently Prince Philip uh was always talking about UFOs to his equerry. Equerry which is an officer within the royal household. I guess sort of like a valet, you know, but like more like official and this the gentleman has the most British name of all times, Sir Peter Horseley. Uh. And he went on to become the Deputy Commander in Chief of the Royal Air Force Strike Command, which sounds really epic. Um. But apparently after Queen Elizabeth was was coronated. Is that is that? Okay? Can you see corinated? Yeah? I've ever heard that word used in that form. After her coronation um. In nineteen fifty three, he privately asked hoarsely or dare I say kind of instructed Horsely to look into quote credible accounts of alien encounters or UFO sightings um. And he, prince Ville himself is quoted as saying, uh, there are many reasons that extraterrestrials exist because there is so much evidence from reliable witnesses. And he said this like a long time ago, way before any of this disclosure stuff. What do you think do you think there's like information sharing between the US and British government, or that there's British intelligence about the alien encounters just like we have. You know, some of the stuff that's starting to kind of trickle out. I know you generally work with horses owned, boy, but to go and digging and tell me about these extra terrest deals. Yeah, you know, it's it's interesting because at that level, what you'll see is that information sharing can become pretty informal. So there are formal classified information sharing agreements, especially in the Anglo sphere, the country between countries and the Anglo sphere. But also if you're Prince Philip and you're on good terms with the US president or the president of some other country, you will be at a dinner party somewhere and you can just say, what's your take on UFOs? What do you guys got to say anything interesting? And doesn't have to be the president. It could be the Director of National Intelligence and then they could conceivably, off the record, share some stuff, have a conversation. Technically that would probably be illegal, but I'm sure it's happened before, and I'm not surprised because we have to remember Prince Philip grew up and and lived in a time when, especially like leading up to World War two. Post World War two, people were intensely interested in the idea of unidentified flying objects, so I think it makes sense. Also, it's interesting because I wonder, and this may be a question for our British listeners. I wonder how much he would have known about classified classified aircraft research in the UK. Would it be need to know? Basis, does he count as someone who needs to know? Can he just pull rank and learn everything? Or how compartmentalized is their information? Also points for nominative determinism. The Equerry is back in the day, the Equerry was in charge of the horses, I believe. And this guy's name is Horseley. Oh yeah, exactly, of course that makes sense Equine. Yeah, that's I didn't even think about that then, in the Equerry. But why is he the why is he the UFO guy? Or does Prince Philip? My question is, does Prince Philip believe that horses and UFOs are related? Because if so, that's very interesting and I want to hear his take on it. Oh, I'm sure he got many takes that will never hear. But I'm fascinated by this biography. I'm sure there's some interesting quotes in there. Um. It certainly seems like it went in an unconventional direction. But this guy hoarsely is quoted quite a few times, and you know, publicly talking about this um where he he has a really great, uh quippy kind of little British wit about him, there's no question. Um. He is quoted in saying that Prince Philip had him invite individuals to Buckingham Palace to talk about their encounters with extraterrestrial life or UFOs um, and he said that he and uh Philip thought this was a quote method as effective as any truth serum, because no one would dare uh tell a lie in front of the royal family. I think the phrase the excellent vice article, uh Jelissa Castordale uses is chat in front of a member of the royal family, which that's just right. And I actually I was gonna mention that too, because I thought that was me Horsely himself talking, which sounded like so uh super British and like and witty. But now I realized that this is totally just creative licensed by the by the writer here, but excellent phrase. And I'm definitely gonna add that to my vocabulary and will pause for a word from our sponsor. Then we'll return with more strange news and we're back. It's funny too, because I think I believe this direction we're going with Horseley. But I think it's so fascinating how often the public forgets that people, even people in high positions of worldly power, are still just human and have hobbies and eccentricities and quirks. Like Horsely was far from a skeptic to my understand Andy. He believed in uf He believed in aliens who believed in UFOs. He also believed in telepathy, and he actually believes he met an alien named Mr Janice. Like, oh that's right, yeah, yea, yeah, yeah exactly. I was just talking about that with with our friend Victor last night, about whether it's pronounced Janice or Janis. I think the day The argument was that he thinks it's Janice, and I definitely have heard it pronounced both with but I always say a Janis too because I like the soft day as well. Ben, But yeah, Mr Janie or Janis if you want it that way. Um was like this apparently this dude who is supposedly had had like an encounter with an alien there, you know, because he he was like vetting people. He was basically like grooming and vetting these like UFO encounter people to come hang out of bucking impalace. It was like a thing, I guess whether I don't know, you could argue with for his own amusement. Prince phil up or if it was genuinely he was like, you know, the truth is out there kind of vibe. But he obviously took it pretty seriously and had this guy go out and find these people with these stories to share. And Horsely said, um, basically said that the guy had like borderline telepathic abilities and like, you know, had this uncanny ability to read his thoughts. Um and he uh is a quote from Horsely. He wrote, I asked him why he wanted to meet Prince Philip, and he replied, Prince Philip is a man of great vision, a person of world renown and a leader in the realm of wildlife and the environment. He is a man who believes strongly in the proper relationship between man and nature, which will prove of great importance in future galactic harmony. Who and then you know, Horsely goes on to say that he, like you, had these kind of dead eyes, you know, and he believed him self to be some sort of extraterrestrial being or extra dimensional whatever. Right. Um, yeah, he told the Daily Mail. He didn't say he was a visitor from another planet, but I had that impression. I believe he was here to observe us. I never saw him again, and there's not other other than his account Horseley's account, I don't believe there there are any other real traces of Mr J. So we don't know the veracity of horsely statement. I don't think he has a reason to lie. But also I when I see quotes like the longer one that you read from Mr J, I don't believe those are that's a little too clean. I think at the very least horse Lease maybe paraphrasing from memory. But the evidence here is the implication that the vibe that Horseley got was he was and alien. And you know, he said he's here to observe us. I never saw him again. I think that's a fascinating story. And I'm not saying telepathy is impossible, but I am saying cold reading is very well proven. It is possible to like a lot of people. No matter how you feel about psychic powers, there are people who purposely pretend to have psychic powers and they're really just doing a cold read on you. Right, I feel like you may have been in love at some point with someone was gone. It's ah, it did their name, it's a it's a, Woa, it's a man. It's a man. His name is but Gary, Gary, his name is Gary. And then people are like, whoa, that's amazing and this guy. You know, I'm just saying, we don't know how this idea of reading thoughts goes about or because I I don't know if there were more specific examples. I think daily Mail that's from right. He talks a little bit more about that. But I didn't see I didn't see something like we're horsely said. I tested him. I thought of a number. He told me the number. Kind of thing that's also such a Daily Mail thing to print, isn't it? You know what I mean? Like utter? You know, I'm sure that the headline was like Prince Philip meets alien, you know, or whatever, or or Prince Philip's best horseman meets alien, uh in London flat. Um. But apparently this obsession, I don't know. I don't think we have enough information to call it an obsession quite yet. But certainly was an enthusiasm for all things um extraterrestrial came. Uh, he kind of came honestly by um. Was was encouraged by his uncle. All the best British names in this story Lord Lewis Dicky mount Batten, um, who, according to the Vice article, is in that show The Crown, which I have not seen. Um, but I keep hearing, you know, it's it's such a part of the conversation right now. I feel like i'm I'm I'm missing out a little bit. But he is the one who got him into Flying Saucer Review in the first place, because he himself was a subscriber. Uh. And he wrote a letter. UM. I almost want to say it was like to Flying Saucer Review. It's a little unclear, but anyway, and in some correspondence, I would love the idea of like, you know, British royals writing in to like a Flying Saucer Review magazine, like in those you know at the end they always have like letters from from readers and stuff like at the end of comic books. Um. But he said that he believed that anyone who was piloting these these alien craft, again very specific, like he's referring to something that we were not privy to, had to have come from another planet. Um. And his his a quote from the letters, his motions Venusians, Jupiterians or what have you. Uh, that that's who was piloting these alien craft. Uh, he says, why should life in another planet with entirely different conditions in any way resemble life on our planet. That's a really good point, uh, Lord Lewis Dickey Mount Batton. It's something that always comes up in conversations about aliens, where it's like, how silly are we to think that like some magical gold LP that we sent out into space is going to be of any use to another alien civilization. They're not going to have the technology that we have. They're not one to one. They've if they've got their own thing, they're probably in their own little technological bubble, either like super advanced or maybe you know, just completely different terms and uh, you know equipment like physiologically right. Well, that's that's why the primary goal in alien contact or attempts to communicate is math based, primarily physics. Fundamental rules of the game of the universe as we know it that don't change. That's that's some of the stuff that subscribed on on those disks that you mentioned. It's funny because the human species is so self obsessed that there there is a lot of stuff being sent out there that's just probably not gonna make sense at all to a non human intelligence without a ton of context. But you know, the more I think about it, looking into this a little bit before we recorded it went what's the line between like a hobby or enthusiasm and obsession? This this also seems to be something that has a little bit of nostalgia to the Prince because he and his uncle corresponded and chopped it up so often about UFOs. So there's there's a social bond there, and there's also, unfortunately, there's there's a little bit of evidence that members of UM, the British scientific elite, saw these guys as kind of batty when uh, when mont Batton wrote to the Ministry of Defense's chief scientific advisor, a guy named Lord Sally Zuckerman, which is fun to say, Zuckerman said, here's what I think of UFOs. They're in the same category as a ghost or the Locknest monster, because there's no evidence that any of them actually exists. And maybe this was somewhat um a little bit of cold water for Montbatton because he later, according to according to the records, seemed to gradually drift away from interest in UFOs to other interests. First off, you know, I love self directed research. I love when people have passions and interests, and you know, I think it's fair to assume that these guys would have had the juice the pool to learn more than the average UFO enthusiasts. But was there ever any like revelation that they disclosed in their lifetimes? Yeah, I mean there's certainly were. Uh, they had some pretty specific theories. I still specifically Mountain Botton. Um. He I sort of started off with him just saying, like, you know, what is generally considered probably a pretty progressive you on on what alien or extra tracial life by look like like he was saying then that there would be very little frame of reference or recognition between you know, humanoid forms and languages and constructs and you know what would exist so so very far away and disconnected from us. But he um, I believe this is a conversation he was having with um with Prince Philip but talked about like he really gets into some some serious detail where he says that these creatures might be gaseous or circular or very large. They certainly can't breathe I mean right out, Uh, and they may not have to eat, And I doubt. If they have babies, bits of their great discs may break away and grow into a new creature. If the human race wishes to survive, they may have to band together, I guess against these gelatinous UH cubes from outer space. Um. I'm not trying to be dismissive. It's just really interesting. And I'm also kind of shocked that this uh, this chief Science Minister or whatever, Lord Sally Zuckerman had the stones to go up against the royal family like that and openly, I guess discredit him, or you know, at the very least kind of negg his whole thing. Right, Well, it's just giving you I would say, he's just giving his opinion. He's paid to be a scientific advisor, so I suppose. But it just feels like that's tricky territory. You know, if you're really out openly criticizing a member of the royal family like that, it just it just seems a little ballsy, It's all. I see what you're saying. But you know, he's also of the upper class. He is a lord, so he's got he's probably got a little more leeway in that regard. But it's you know, there is a good point about the some of the description there when they say life form might be possibly circular, because if you if you imagine let's say, a space faring species, or you imagine something that somehow evolved in a vacuum of space right without the same kind of gravitational constraints terrestrial species will have, then that radial symmetry makes sense. There's nothing incentivizing you to like pushing against drew growing in a specific direction. So I could see that I'm down for space jellyfish. I I would not be surprised if a lot of if there are somewhere out there in the universe. Uh, there's more than one kind of life form that does look similar to the forms we recognize in the deep oceans. I just don't think reality is uh creative enough on the based ons of physics to come up with brand new stuff if it doesn't have to. That's a good point, Ben, that's a good point. You know. Philip, until the day he died, presumably UM never lost his fervor for UM alien exploration. UM and he apparently uh as recently as last summer read a book about the Randall Sham Forest incident. Have we done an episode on this. Ben, I don't know that Randall sham Forrest incidents, but apparently it's one of England's most well known UFO sighting. Uh yeah, I don't remember if we have, but it's cut up. It's one of those things I would call a phantom topic. It happened in December of nineteen eighty. Uh. If we haven't, if I haven't done a video on it, then yeah, we should definitely do an episode on it. Yeah, agreed. But all this to say that, you know, he definitely up until the end was was super into this stuff and and didn't let any uh you know, back talking science people dissuade him. Um. The writer of this vice piece who you mentioned, just Julissa Castra Dale a lot of cool names in this made a really good point that, like, aside from this one, you know science schmuck who you know kind of poured the cold water on Uh lord, what does it? Bat Batten? Him bought Mount Batten. Excuse me? Um. She points out that you know, people of the upper crust, you know who maybe have country estates and uh you know, are members of of the royal family or adjacent at the very least, you know that that old old, old moneyed you know, British high society. When they talk about stuff like this, they're like praised for being open minded and freethinking, you know. But when more like blue collar folks talk about they're you know, asked politely to leave the wenbies. This same says the difference between being uh noted eccentric and a raging loon is it really comes down to social status and income. That's the point of making earlier when you hear when you hear about very powerful people being very human, right for all the things that being very human means, uh, it's it shouldn't be surprising. Like I guarantee you everybody is weird on some level. And and the people who look like they are in charge of the world or hold the reigns of a country. I hope everyone listening finds it reassuring to know this and hear this very well. They are just as weird as you, if not weirder, because there are more opportunities to get to get real eccentric, more opportunities for weirdness, and a lot of yes people surrounding you and kind of encouraging your every you know, whim um that that's a recipe for for eccentricity, to be sure, but I thought this was a lot of fun, uh and an interesting way to remember uh, someone who history baby hasn't quite settled in on. Uh. You know how how we feel about this guy. Um, you know this whole like racist comment that he kind of got, like a quote unquote racist comment about you know talking well, yes, exactly. I think he didn't specifically use that word. He just asked, there's like some some envoy or and some diplomatic trip. He he was that there was a group of Indigenous people that performed some sort of the you know, dance of situation, and he just like very casually says, you still throw spears at each other. Um, which is obviously, you know, super weird and problematic. But I actually found an article I don't know how it came up, but it said, Uh it was an article from ABC where one of the indo visuals who he said this too, felt that the comment was not racist. But I don't necessarily think it's always up to the person um. And it's so yeah, that's why again I want to go circle back to the cargo cults thing Ben, because he obviously had this weird there's a weird reverence towards this man from some you know, indigenous people, right yep, uh yeah, I mean that's not that's not uncommon. Uh. There there was reverence from a specific indigenous community, but their reverence. There's reverence for all sorts of celebrities or noted political figures. There's another example. Always think of uh, I did I did some something on I can't remember which show this was for. You know who's big in Paraguay, Rutherford B. Hayes U S President. People love him there, their statues, they celebrate him on a yearly basis. They don't think he's a god. He's not a mythical figure, but he is a national hero. So I can I can see, uh, just celebrity and renowned. It's a it's a very it's a very weird thing. I don't know what Rutherford B. Hayes thought of UFOs. I I know nothing about him other than the fact that he's got a pretty memorable name. And then that's about all I remember. Um in this same ABC article, and then I know we gotta move on. Um. And by the way, the comment that that Prince Philip made was it was an Australian visit to Queensland, Australia. Um and he uh, the one of the gentlemen. He said that too. Totally defended him and said, oh, he's a he's a lovely man. He didn't mean anything by it and um and then goes on to really gush about the guy. Uh and in Australia he is he it wasn't is still beloved, And largely it had to do with the fact that he was so open and uh kind of free speaking and presumably free thinking. Uh and and would kind of just say whatever his mind, as opposed to the Queen who has seen as being very um you know, closed off and and formal. Uh. He was favored that this is a quote from this uh the way he was perceived by Australians historian um who literally heard about specific specializations. Uh. She is a historian on royal visits to Australia. Um and she said that he was famous quote for for being more open than the very guarded queen. So when he was young and fairly handsome, he was seen as dynamic with he and a breath of fresh air. All this kind of tracks but uh, like I said, very very interesting dude. A lot of kind of mixed messages around this guy over time, but UH, I love the fact that he was a big UFO head. And so there we leave the story of the Duke of Edinburgh. UH, Fellow UFO enthusiasts, We're gonna pause for a word from our sponsor, who may or may not be illuminate Asian Global Unlimited, and will be right back and half a world away. But we're staying on Earth for this next one, and we've returned. This is an ongoing story that you may have heard mentioned in Western news to varying degrees of specificity. It's also something you may have heard us mentioned in the course of earlier episodes. Our next piece of strange news is quite unfortunate, and it takes us to mean Mar mean Mar is a country that doesn't hit the US news too often. If you're the average resident of the US, you're probably most familiar with me and Mar through the story of the democracy activists on Young Succhi. Uh. Myanmar is if you look at a map, it's directly to the left of Thailand, the erectly to the right of Bangladesh. It's it's between those two countries. It shares a border with several other countries, including China. This has been um of famously troubled, infamously troubled country for a long time. It's been ruled by a military junta for most of our lifetimes for those of us making the show, and it's something we've talked about before, militaries and their responsibilities for function and stability of government, which are usually outlined in the country's constitution. Here's what happened recently. Amid the pandemic. There was a time of what is often described as quasi democracy. Russell Goldman, writing for The New York Times, has a great explainer piece on this February first, there was a coup de tap in the country, and it brought back full military rule. I I am the first to admit I've dunked a little bit on Myanmar's military, primarily because of their decision a number of years ago to move the country's capital based on the advice of an astrologer. That is, yeah, that's a true story. And again, I think the last time I mentioned I was trying to be really fair and I was saying, hey, before you before anybody looks down their collective noses at that decision. Let's remember that U S presidents like Ronald Reagan have also taken advice from astrologers, so it's not it's not restricted to just one country. The military had been in power in Myanmar since nineteen sixty two and the period of quasi democracy begins in two thousand eleven, so there was a long multigenerational history of this being a country ruled by a military. When democracy came into power in two thousand eleven, they were implementing reforms, parliamentary elections. It became very complicated very quickly. The trouble, the recent trouble, began on November eight. The National League for Democracy is the leading civilian party and there were elections held on November eight. National League for Democracy n LD won eight three per cent of the vote of the seats in parliament. And what did the military do. They said it was a sham. They said it was a fraud, They said this was a kangaroo court election wise, Uh, they said that the National League for Democracy did not in fact, when three of the seats um And of course A San Succi is the head of that democratic party. She's been as a result, the leader since she's like a real people's candidate, right, I mean, she's absolutely beloved, and it's almost like the military resents that kind of you know, adoration of this individual, who, if I'm not mistaken, I mean, is a pretty interesting figure and like not not super problematic. I mean, all politicians have two sides or whatever, but it's my understanding that she very much was kind of humanitarian individual and someone who you know, the adoration of the people kind of makes sense, right, Yeah, But unfortunately it's it's a little it gets a little complicated when you say she's the people's candidate. That qualifies as long as those people are not Rohinga, which is the Muslim ethnic minority group uh in Myanmar. The country launched a deadly campaign against this ethnic group UH, and she supported it. Upon her release from house arrest, Oh, she was also locked up for years and years and years. UH. She defended this, this campaign of brutality against the Rohinga in like the International Court of Justice. So it wasn't just a throwaway comment in an interview, and a lot of her supporters said, this is really a pragmatic move to cooperate with the military because it will accelerate the evolution toward full democracy. But then when the coup occurred on February one, it appeared that whatever cooperation or olive branch she had extended was not enough in their opinion. So here's what happened when when they said the November eight elections were bogus, the military went to the country's Supreme Court and they said, not only are these results fraudulent, but we are going to take action because it's our job as the military. We're gonna surround the houses governmental bodies with soldiers. Sounds troublingly familiar to some of the actions on January six, right, although those were you know, protesters, rioters, not paid soldiers totally, And I was, I was remembering half of the story. She did have a early kind of period as this golden you know, human rights kind of beacon, protesting against the regime that m was very poor with their human rights record essentially, but then essentially went on to kind of become the thing that she hated, right, Like that's sort of the complexity of this individual. Yeah. Yeah, Unfortunately, Um, the you know, the the closer you looked at historical figures, the more well you know, the more reputational warts you are likely to find. And that's kind of the case with Prince Philip as well. You know, people at the top again are are just as human as everyone else. The military detained on San Succi, also President you and Mint, also cabinet ministers, chief ministers of several regions, opposing politicians, writers, activists. They were locking people up left and right. It was the hottest new thing. Uh. The coup was pretty much announced to the public on the military owned TV station Milwauite TV news anchor there sited the constitution, which had come into effect in two thousand and eight and said, you know, the military can legally declare a national emergency, and this state of emergency that they have declared is going to stay in place for one year. After that point, the military took control of the communications infrastructure of Myanmar. They suspended most TV broadcasts, They canceled flights international and domestic. I mean, this sounds this sounds sort of par for the course if you're thinking about it as another country very far away. But it's important to think about how you would feel if this occurred in your country, whether that's the UK, Australia, India is getting close with some of their authoritarian measures or you know, whether it happened in the US, what would you do? Telephone, internet access all suspended, the stock market, the banks, they were closed. There were long lines outside of a t m s because people were rushing to get hard currency. People ran to the markets to stock up on food and supplies. People were panicking, and their panic proved to be correct. The public responded with a number of peaceful protests, but on February the first official deaths occurred to unarmed protesters were killed by security forces. One of those was a sixteen year old boy. There was a general strike then on February, millions of people left their jobs, took to the street, and then they tried to fight back financially. This civil disobedience movement crippled the banking system, so it was tougher for the military to get stuff done. But then the military became more violent and and that trend increases. The military at this point has killed more than six people, and according to international monitoring agencies, they've assaulted, detained, or tortured thousands of others. And now one of the one of the other evolutions people are seeing as these peaceful protesters are mobilizing into what some journalists are describing a guerrilla force. So remember when we talked about the farm protests, A lot of the protesters were building barricades to protect themselves. This is happening in Myanmar, but there they're not traveling to cities to build these barricades. They're building barricades around their own neighborhoods, and they're learning how to make smoke bombs their training and basic forest warfare. This is an untenable, unsustainable situation, and it could have regional ramifications. It's already going to have regional ramifications. I mean you have to imagine the larger countries surrounding the m are all very well aware of this situation and pretty pretty spooped, and rightly so. I mean the military like they began a secret trial on February sixt for all song SUCHI uh, who to further complicated legacy, by the way, I think we should mend. And she did win the Nobel Peace Prize before the Rhinga stuff. Yeah, yeah, no, it's super interesting, um to see someone kind of devolved in this way, and and and there's two sides to it all, you know, I'm sure, But yeah, the I mean is she directly responsible for human rights violations after being such a proponent for human rights or is it more just like by association. I'm a little unclear on that aspect of her. Yeah, So it goes back to seen people wanted her Nobel prize to be revoked because she was silent about the persecution of the Rohinga people in the country. But then she went on to say that she did not believe it was ethnic cleansing. She said there was a climate of fear uh, and that there was a worldwide perception about global Muslim power that was affecting the military's position. So, yeah, it gets it gets complicated. The economist famously said her halo has even slipped among foreign human rights lobbyists, disappointed at her failure to make a clear stand on behalf of the Rohinga minority. So it makes you wonder like, is this a crime of neglect? Is this a crime of or is this an active crime would be a better way to say it, like is she making the laws that allow for this persecution? Well, this time, the law is definitely not on her side, at least the way the military is thinking about it. Because imagine this, Okay, you're the president of a country, or you're the leader of a country. We should say a leader of a political party. Military coup occurs and boom, go directly to jail. Do not pasco, do not collect two hundred dollars. This trial is bonkers, so she doesn't get any legal representation. So imagine you went from being one of the most powerful people in your country to having a secret trial. Your lawyer is not told that the trial has started. This trial is believed to take up to a year, but we have no idea like the reason that she is on trial. The crime she's accused of has nothing to do with human rights violations. It's actually she is accused of violating import restrictions because military forces when they went into her compound they found walkie talkies. She's also in trouble for having for interacting with a crowd during the pandemic, and that's a charge that hadn't been publicly disclosed before. So we still don't know. If you wanted to be really cynical a Macavellian about it, you could say that maybe the military is just looking for an excuse to keep her jammed up for that year of military rule, right, now the army chief, Senior General men On Klong, is the it's sort of the active ruler of the country. He was supposed to kind of age out or retire this summer, but he's in trench now there's there's a possibility for him to become a strong man because he also has a network based on what really profitable family businesses, and now if he retires, they might not be able to make as much of a viig. So he's probably staying on for a while, even though he is a business tycoon, a senior military official and now the ruler of the country. And there was always I don't know. I mean, you've seen the stories before where the military intervenes in in a country's state level affairs. It's always a very dicese situation. It's never well, it's usually not supposed to be permanent the way it's phrase. But at this point I have to wonder. My question, Funeral is do you think there's foreign involvement in this coup? Do you think, for instance, another regional power broker is aiding the military or like what prompted this? I don't know, man, that's a good question. I guess the thing to look forward, be who who is benefiting from this unrest? Like, is it regionally destabilizing in a way that benefits any any other governments or or you know, entities. Yeah, that's that's it. That's a good that's a good way to look at it. We BoNT know who benefits. Uh, follow the money, right. The money may be drying up as well because the EU and some other international players are sanctioning mean Mar's leaders in an attempt to depower them, essentially. But it's funny because the well, when I say funny, it's it's it's a terrible situation, just to be clear. But one thing I thought was interesting is that the leaders of Myanmar officially warned the world not to call this a coup. That's one of the first things they said internationally. They said, look, if you are describing this state of emergency, don't call it a coup. We're doing the right thing. We're doing legal things. And here's the little add on, And if you use incorrect words to describe this state of emergency, that could be seen as an act of instigation. It could be breaking the law. So be very careful what you say. Luckily, our podcast is not based in Myanmar at this point. Yeah, it's sort of like the geopolitical equivalent of calling a water pipe a bong in a tobacco store and being asked to leave right, right, right, but leaving to j L and probably get tortured. Yeah, yeah, I had to say it out loud. Then don't call it a coup. We've been here for years, right right? Uh and and shout out to shout out to some of my favorite hip hop groups, the Coup and of course Mighty Haiku based here in Atlanta. Uh, neither of whom are to my knowledge, involved in overthrowing democratically elected governments. Just throwing down Swede bars. Yeah. Absolutely, that's where their passion is. But what about China's passion. I mean, that's the that's the specter right cast over this entire affair. The military has conspired to overthrow an elected government. China has to know about it, right. China has been kind of playing both sides for a long time. They've got good relationships with the military hierarchy. They've got good relationships with the Democratic Party there. They're just you know, they're playing the long game. And there official statement was pretty interesting. It's well, I'll read it, I'll share it with you, and then I don't want to get everybody's take so loong. When Bin who is the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of China, said China and Myanmar are friendly neighbors. We hope that all parties will properly handle their differences under the constitution and legal framework to maintain political and social stability. That is a very polite way to say, not our problem. In my opinion, what do you think they're just not They said, this is uh, this is something a problem you will work out in your own house more or less. The issue here is that when they've instituted that one year period, we don't know how far. We don't know how far we'll go with one year, you know what I mean? Like, will it what what will happen after that year? Will there be another election that maybe has results the military fields are more accurate, or you know, also favor them a little bit more, or will they say the state of emergency continues and for the good of the country, for the greater good, we have to continue uh military rule. It's just it's so rare for a group that takes power in this way to voluntarily give it up. You know what I mean, it's it's very dangerous water. The other big regional player in the mix here. The other two big ones are Japan and India. India is the world's largest democracy. Japan also is worried that this shift, or this return to authoritarian military rule, is going to sway Myanmar away from democratic nations and towards what they call the League of China. And this has been something Japan was very frightened about were a long long time because they didn't want Myanmar to become a vassal state of China. They thought it would be a danger to the country's prospects for democracy, and Japan went out of their way to be friendly here. Um. You know we mentioned two thousand eleven, that's where we see democracy come into power. The very next year, Japan canceled a ton of Meamar's debt and then they gave them another loan to help them clear out their debts with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank. They were trying to make like a fresh start for the country. And at this point it's an ongoing story, but it's a story I feel like more people should be aware of because we're going to hear more about it. Um. I I don't know what the predictions will be. I hope that, uh, you know, the politicians who have been locked up, even if even if some of them were corrupt, I hope that they are safe and incarceration and they don't get you know, a Russian style illness or something like that. I hope an accident doesn't occur to them. But this, this is unsustainable, and because the country is so poor, it doesn't get as much attention as it should. So at this point we're gonna We're gonna call it a day. We'll be back with more strange news next week. Want to hear from you. Who are your favorite prominent UFO enthusiasts and do you have family in Myanmar or have you visited the country? What is your take? If you are listening to this show and you are in the country right now, please be safe. We would love to hear from you. We try to make it easy to find us online. You can find us on the Internet and multiple places. We are Conspiracy Stuff on Twitter and Facebook, Conspiracy Stuff Show on Instagram. You can also give us a call at our hotline. 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